UK Conservative and Liberal to form coalition

Results indicate there will be a hung parliament, where no party obtains the simple majority needed to pass legislation on its own, raising the prospect of a minority or coalition government being formed, which would require cooperation between parties.

David Cameron

With only one constituency not yet counted, David Cameron’s Conservatives have taken 306 seats, incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour party 258 seats, and Nick Clegg with his Liberal Democrats with 57.

Cameron has said he will negotiate with the latter party to try and form a coalition to attain more than 325 seats, or half those in the parliament.

After Labour’s large losses at the polls yesterday, both in terms of seats and votes, Cameron said Brown has “lost his mandate to govern”. Clegg, meanwhile, says he thinks the result allows the Conservatives to try to form a government first, contrary to past tradition, under which the incumbent prime minister and his party in a hung parliament try first to form a coalition.